Museum Mile 2011

It's fun to walk - and take photos - in the middle of 5th Avenue

Yesterday was the 33rd Annual Museum Mile Festival in New York City.

Last year I visited the Guggenhiem Museum which is known for it’s spiral shape and was also the most expensive Museum. It was crowded! We took about 30 minutes to get into the museum itself and spent another hour or two browsing the collection. Afterwards I ran into my Aunts and mom … what are the odds?

This year, I decided that it was time to visit museums I wouldn’t usually visit, so we visited the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the Museum of the City of New York.

While waiting in line to enter Cooper-Hewitt we bumped into one of my aunts! I suppose the odds aren’t that slim.

The Cooper-Hewitt had two large exhibits. The second floor held the Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay exhibit. There were a lot of patterns and prints done by Sonia Delaunay that was made into fabric and the fascinating thing was its similarity to the prints in today’s fashion.

The first floor of the Cooper-Hewitt held the Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit and this was a hit, mostly amongst the ladies. I love jewelry as much as the next woman, but I found a lot of the pieces too grandiose – which, I suppose, was the point. I did enjoy the butterflies though and the jewel-encrusted dancers.

The Museum of the City of New York had a Joel Grey/A New York Life exhibit on the second floor. In this exhibit I realised that Academy and Golden Globe awards aren’t large, even though they seem large on the television; that sometimes pictures of rusty chain links on a pink, flaky wall can look extremely artistic. Also, that I should have married a wealthy man in the 1800s if I wanted to have a fancy drawing room, complete with picture table and decorative fireplace.

The first floor contained a dollhouse which was exquisitely decorated. Which I wanted to take home. Which in turn reminded me of this – Grace White also has an Etsy shop, which I plan on browsing often. I think this was my favourite thing of the night!

The first floor also contained the The American Style: Colonial Revival and the Modern Metropolis exhibit, which is wonderful to view. It’s fun to imagine society in colonial times.

We must have walked at least three miles, so we ended the night with Shake Shack burgers and fries (yummy). Now I’ve visited four museums in the Museum Mile, just 6 more to go.

[photos courtesy of Cate!]